Peer-reviewed article
Causality of mental health and child marriage
Mihajlo Mijanović ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This research examines the impact of child marriage on the mental health of minors in Montenegro, particularly within Roma and Egyptian communities. The study found that girls marry at an average age of 16.47 years and boys at 18.39 years, with cases as young as 12 and 13. Child marriage is often accompanied by multiple forms of violence including physical, sexual, emotional, and economic abuse. The research identified poverty, substance abuse, jealousy, lack of education, and tradition as factors linked to violence, and found that early marriage disrupts children's biological growth and development, leading to chronic mental health problems.
Key points
- Average marriage age was 16.47 for girls and 18.39 for boys, with youngest cases being 12-year-old girls and 13-year-old boys
- All forms of violence (physical, sexual, emotional, economic, social, racial) were documented alongside child marriage
- 26.3% of women and 40.9% of men reported accepting violence in all or certain circumstances
- Poverty was highly correlated with alcohol, drugs, and gambling as violence drivers
- Early marriage was identified as the main cause of poor mental health among minors, particularly girls
Limitations
The document does not provide details on the sample size, sampling methodology, or statistical significance tests. The causality claimed in the title cannot be fully established without controlled comparisons between married and unmarried children, and the cross-sectional nature of the data limits inferences about causal mechanisms.
Abstract
The goal and problem of this research is the impact of minor (child) marriages on the mental health of minors in Montenegro. Child marriages are especially present in Roma and Egyptian communities in these and wider areas. After extensive research on a representative sample of both sexes, the assumptions that domestic violence still dominates in these ethnic communities have been confirmed. The average age of girls at the time of marriage is 16.47, and for men 18.39. According to this research, the youngest married couples are 12-year-old girls and 13-year-old boys. In addition to arranged minor marriages, which are a kind of violence against violence, other forms of violence (physical, sexual, emotional, economic, social, racial, child theft and child trafficking) have also been established. In some form, men's violence against women is present without exception. The causes of violence against women are numerous, starting with alcohol, drugs, gambling, poverty, jealousy, lack of education, and tradition. According to the respondents, poverty is not the main reason for violence against women, but the analysis of the results of the regression and correlation analysis show that poverty is highly correlated with alcohol, drugs and gambling. Jealousy as a reason for physical violence is very little represented. Women's attitudes towards violence particularly interesting and unexpected. As many as 26.3% of women support violence in all circumstances and violence in certain circumstances. Men were even more passionate, 40.9% of men believe that violence is acceptable in all circumstances and in certain circumstances. It is indicative and important to point out that 22.3% of women and 36.6% of men did not express their opinion on this issue. Women did not declare that they suffer violence because of fear of new violence, and men did not declare because of sanctions by the competent institutions. The main cause of poor mental health among minors, especially among girls, is early marriage, which interrupts natural biological growth and development. Numerous disruptive endogenous and exogenous factors generate violence up to murder, and the ultimate outcome of violence is chronically disturbed mental health.